Ilkley & The Yorkshire Dales
April 2005

Our Easter Camp returned in 2005 to take us to the Yorkshire Dales. 30 scouts got involved as we set a spy or secret agent theme for the camp. We got through an unbelievable level of activities, covered some serious milage and seem to have put a smile on everyone's face.

Bank holiday driving
A prompter than expected departure from the HQ saw us leaving only five minutes behind schedule. Two minibuses and a van hit the motorway for a long and possibly traffic-ridden journey to Yorkshire. Fortunately the traffic confined itself to the lower sections of the M1, and we managed to make the journey in a reasonable just under six hours, which included two lengthy stops at the services. The van was slightly ahead of the minibuses and Matt, Tom and Charles all enjoyed their BK in the company of Jonny Vegas.

Curly Hill Campsite
Wharfedale District let us stay at their superb site, Curly Hill. An excellently looked after site overlooking the town of Ilkley and Ilkley Moor. It's good woodland and small open spaces, plus has the best equipped building we've ever seen. Thanks to Paul the warden who stayed up late to check us in on Thursday night.

Long Churn Caves
The first activity of the weekend was an underground adventure in Long Churn Caves, a complex and very wet system north of Settle in the Dales. An abseil down a waterfall led to a series of chambers, tunnels and tight squeezes for the scouts to walk, crawl and riggle through. Dave and Rachel were superb guides and we got very muddy indeed.

Skipton
We'd headed for Twistleton Scar for a spot of climbing, but the drizzle made us think it might be a bit miserable, so instead we headed for the shops and tea rooms of Skipton. Does this mean we're getting old? The chocolate crunchy cakes were particularly pleasant.

Ilkley Moor
One busfull then spent an hour clambering around the Cow and Calf on Ilkley Moor, the famous landmark. There are breathtaking views and a spot of rock action is always welcome.

Curly Hill Casino
Everybody donned shirts and bowties for our Casino evening. The scouts gambled their way to profit or ruin, on the black jack and roulette tables. An important lesson to the pitfalls of gambling was learned with the realisation that the main winner of the evening was the casino itself. Oh, and Alex D. who won £800 (of "Troop B money") after placing a small bet on roulette.

Mocktail bar
If you're at a casino you've got to enjoy a cocktail to look the part. So we ran our very own non-alcoholic cocktail bar. The Ringleader's Revenge was particularly popular.

Adventure hike
The scouts participated in a hike in their patrols on the Saturday. However we spiced it up by dropping them off in the middle of nowhere with no instructions, then they had to complete a series of challenges along the way. All this happened in the Bolton Abbey area, which is a great place to spend an overcast day.

Follow the boundary
One patrol chose to follow the national park boundry, believing the leaders had highlighted the route on the map. They got their in the end by having a jog all the way along the Wharfe!

Slacklining
We set up a slacklining challenge. Slacklining is a new sport, which is a bit like tightrope walking, only with a slack rope. The best achiever in terms of distance was Robert W, closely followed by Jamie K.

Up Strid Creek
Matt met teams at the infamous Strid, where they had to complete a quiz in order to continue. We're not sure what questions were asked, but sitting next to the raging torrent was good enough in itself.

Stepping stones
They were set the challenge of making it across the dodgy stepping stones near Barden further up the Wharfe. Hats off to James C, Max W and Ollie R who made it all the way. Also to Kane O and Rupert H who made it a creditable distance before going for a paddle! They are very, very slippery you see. How James stayed dry is beyond us. They can claim their twenty quids from Ed anytime.

Ice climbing
The older scouts climbed up the Ice Wall at Xscape, Castleford. Donning all the gear, they got the idea as they were trained in the art of ice climbing.

Snowboarding
Some of the scouts learned to snowboard on the real snow slope at Castleford. By the end they were standing up and sliding down the slopes.

Skiing
Those that needed instruction got their bearings in a lesson on the learner slope, those that could spent an hour racing down the slope recreationally. Biggest jumper was easily Ollie R followed by Adam S. Best tuck goes to Peter C - very fast skiier.

Gateshead tour
Sunday morning began with a short detour. To Gateshead! Ollie was looking on the wrong page of the map you see. Forty miles further and we'd have been mountain biking in Scotland!

Muddy quad trekking
Each scout enjoyed a thrilling hour's quad trekking, through fields, the woods, mud, jumps and massive puddles. This made everybody very muddy indeed.

Mountain bike mud bath
If the quads made us muddy, the mountain biking caked us. Following one of the marked trails in the Dalby Forest, one section was choice - with puddle and mud spray all the way. You couldn't see our clothes by the end of it. A gnarly group (Adam S, Jack B, Peter C, Alex D and Mike G) headed off to complete the red downhill sections, getting even muddier in the process.

On Ilkley Moor by night
The final challenge on the camp was a night exercise on Ilkely Moor. We were out there until 2am, as scouts tried to complete the problems, night navigate about and race against the other teams to win the day. Goldeneye patrol won, detonating 'the bomb' in the eleventh hour.

Camp fire
We returned for easter eggs around the campfire, a fine way to end a tiring day.

Lie in
We allowed the scouts a lie-in until lunchtime - a first, which they seemed to appreciate. They were certainly more awake this morning, than they were the night before.

Metrodome
Our journey home was interuptted by a trip to the Metrodome, Barnsley's swimming attraction with slides, wave machine, etc. It was great, and a fine way to end a memorable weekend.

Thanks to Matt, Alan, Matthew and Jane for all their efforts in delivering the camp, and the scouts for excelling on a challenging, exciting and muddy weekend. We hope that it hasn't caused any parents' washing machines to get clogged with mud!

Why not click here to read a report on the event by one of our Scouts?